From the Diaspora…A BLACK JESUS, NEW YEAR RESOLUTION AND PROCRASTINATION

Dec 29, 2013 News

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By Ralph Seeram
One of my greatest weaknesses is that I am a procrastinator. It’s a problem I have been trying to overcome for years. I love to postpone things I considered not urgent or time sensitive. This very article I am writing at the last moment, even though I had ample time during the Christmas holidays to do so.
As I am writing there is a clutter of mail I need to go through, some to file away, some to garbage. Speaking about filing away therein lies the problem, to sort and separate. On a few occasions I had to pay late fees on bills; the envelopes were unopened. I got around that by having the payments deducted automatically from my account.
My daughter came up with a solution, scan the documents, or statements, which will file automatically, and get rid of the physical correspondence. My bank has been bugging me to go paperless, get email statements, or see the accounts online, but that would present another problem, I will have to go online to do so, and as a great procrastinator, you know what would happen.
I am sure I am not singular in this respect; I know many of you have the same problem. Many in the Diaspora can relate to this. We get overwhelmed at times, mortgage statements, bank statements, as well as bills such as house insurance, car insurance, water bill, electric, garbage, cell phone, cable, credit card sand the list goes on, not to mention the flood of “junk” mails in the mix. This process repeats itself every month so if you do not clear up the mail, you suddenly find you have two months correspondence sitting on your table.
My New Year resolution is to stop being a procrastinator, and I am going to start right after I am finished with this article. I have stuff to do that I have postponed for the last six months; it will be done this weekend.
Now I am aware that most New Year resolutions fade out by the end of January. That resolution to lose weight, to diet, to exercise, and to stop drinking and smoking are some that sometimes make it to February then “call it a day”.
Then there is some resolution I would like to become a reality in the New Year. These I have no control over, so it comes under the category of wish list for 2014.
I would like to see less women being murdered by Guyanese men who “cant tek lef”, and more jail time for women beaters; bring back the “cat o nine tails. If they like lash women they must “tek lash” in return. If they kill women, they must be hanged; desperate times call for desperate measures. It has not dawned yet on some Guyanese men that women are not slaves.
I would like to see less meddling by the United States Ambassador in the internal affairs of Guyana. This guy has become bolder in his meddling. It is one thing to criticize the PPP government, but it is another thing to “eye pass” the sovereignty of the country. A recall by the Government would be quite in order.
I would like to see the tolls for cars and minibuses reduced by 50 per cent on the Berbice River Bridge. The attempt at window dressing by Bridge Officials in reducing some tolls is really cosmetic. For the $2200 they charge for a car, I can drive over 200 miles in the highway here in Florida. They are charged that for a less than a one mile bridge. The PPP government needs not wait for elections to reduce the tolls, the time is now.
Speaking of PPP government I would like to see President Donald Ramotar reshuffle his Cabinet, actually I should not say reshuffle, get rid of the thieves in his Cabinet; he knows who they are.
The survival of the PPP depends on what the President does in 2014. More transparency, no more secret contracts.
I would like the Guyana Police Force to get rid of the “highway robbers” in their midst, who prey on drivers daily on the road for bribes. I would to see more qualified licensed drivers on the roads and less of those drivers who “bought” their drivers’ licences. If the police enforced the traffic laws with the same vigor they are extorting money there will be fewer road fatalities.
Well there are a few things more I wish for Guyana, but it would only be wishful thinking, so I wouldn’t mention them.
So I went to church on Christmas Eve night, like so many who did not attend church as regular as they should during the year. A few weeks ago a Fox TV host inferred that Jesus was white; this caused quite a controversy here in the U S media. I am following the service on the projected screen. My church, St Stephen Lutheran, does not use hymnal books or bible, it is there but everything is projected on the screen accompanied by images for worshippers to follow.
I noticed the images of the people were dark in complexion, I thought nothing of it until the Nativity scene, there it was, baby Jesus was DARK BROWN not white. All the persons around were also dark brown. Now this would not arouse any curiosity in most Afro American dominated churches, but my church is 99 per cent middle to upper class white.
As a matter of fact I made it a point to note that besides my family of five, there were not more than five other minorities in the congregation which had to be over 300 worshippers. I should add that since we had a new young Pastor a few years ago the church has become very liberal.
I could not help thinking that I was baptized, confirmed and was a member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in New Amsterdam, a church that at one time had segregation notices of colored folks. How times have changed.
Times have changed so much that today we have forgotten the CHRIST in Christmas, so if you are a Christian, come the next Christmas, make it a resolution to put the Christ back in Christmas, it’s not about the gifts, the big parties and “drink up” and dressing up the house, it’s about a poor carpenter and his girlfriend seeking shelter in a manger for her to deliver her baby. It was very humble surroundings.
Now I have to go start cleaning up my garage.
Happy New Year to all my readers, friends and families.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: [email protected]

 

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